CPEA pilot goes smoothly

The first sitting (pilot) of the Caribbean Primary Exit Assessment (CPEA) was written on Friday, May 11, by just under 2,000 students in Anguilla and Grenada.{{more}}

In Grenada 1,727 students took the assessment at 53 centres across Grenada, Carriacou and Petit Martinique; while in Anguilla, 223 students from six centres did the assessment.

The students wrote the final part of the CPEA, which was in the form of a multiple choice test. The other components of the CPEA were completed in school over the duration of the programme.

The students were assessed in three areas during Friday’s external assessment: English, Mathematics and Science. This will account for 60 per cent of their final grade, while the internal assessment completed in school will account for the other 40 per cent.

In Grenada, Honourable Franka Alexis-Bernardine, Minister of Education and Human Resource Development, along with a team from the Ministry of Education, visited schools prior to the commencement of the external assessment.

Minister Alexis-Bernardine described Friday’s first sitting as a “watershed moment for us here in Grenada.”

Noting that the CPEA is a work in progress, the Minister said, “I think people understand the principle behind what we are trying to do. It’s important to remember that today is just part of the total assessment…that if a child, for any reason, is not able to perform well today, that does not mean he is not going to get into secondary, because there are other means of assessing his progress.”

Davis Adams, Principal of South St George Government School, expressed similar sentiments as the Education Minister. Mr Adams said it was a very proud moment for him as an educator.

“I am glad that I am in school to be part of this moment in Grenada’s history…” he stated. “We should embrace it with both hands and work the best we can that when our students get into secondary education they can be the best citizens of Grenada, Carriacou and Petit Martinique.”

“The CPEA pilot went very smoothly in Anguilla,” stated Colleen Horsford, CXC Local Registrar in Anguilla. “There was a noticeable increase in the number of parents who accompanied their children to the examination hall. This, I believe, demonstrates the importance parents have attached to the CPEA and the fact that they were very involved with the programme from its inception.”

Horsford attributed the improved parental involvement to the meeting the Ministry of Education and CXC hosted with parents at the start of the programme in 2011, which was attended by over 200 parents.

The CPEA assesses the literacies required by all students exiting the primary school system. The programme departs from the traditional one-shot test offered in the various primary exit examinations, and assesses the students over a period of time, using various methodologies: projects, writing portfolios, book reports, can do skills, internal teacher-prepared tests and student-prepared tests.